1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an endoscope having a curving portion at a tip of an endoscope inserting portion.
2. Description of Related Art
Endoscopes have been widely utilized as apparatuses capable of viewing inner portions of body cavities, inner portions of tubes of structural objects, and the like. While endoscopes are equipped with endoscope inserting portions which are inserted into inner portions of objects under inspection and main body manipulating units provided to be communicated with base ends of the endoscope inserting portions, curving portions are provided on the side of tips of the endoscope inserting portions and are curved by hauling manipulation wires penetrated through the endoscope inserting portions. The manipulation wires are hauled along desirable directions by manipulating angle knobs arranged on main body manipulating units, so that the curving portions can be curved along the desirable directions. Among the above-described endoscopes, such an endoscope equipped with a power assist function has been described in JP-A-2005-028018. That is, in order to reduce manipulating forces capable of curving the curving portion in the power assist function of the endoscope, manipulation assisting power for assisting to haul the manipulation wire are applied to a wire hauling member by operating an assist-purpose driving motor. In accordance with the above-described endoscope having the power assist function, since the manipulation assisting power generated by the driving motor provided in the main body manipulating unit is applied to the angle knob in addition to manipulating forces for the angle knob which are produced by an operator of this endoscope, the curving portion can be curved only by a desirable curving amount while the manipulating forces are reduced.